SYKE – International Examples of Business Renewal for the Finnish Industry

Have you come across an industrial company that has managed to renew its business by utilising digitalisation in some way? For example, climbed up a step in the value chain, expanded successfully to a new business area or managed to digitalise and rethink its internal operations? An example, that would offer new ideas and perspectives for the management of Finnish industrial companies looking to renew their business.

KV-SYKE – International Examples of Business Renewal for the Finnish Industry project is looking for companies that have managed to renew their business with the help of digitalisation – examples that are relevant for forward-thinking industrial companies.

KV-SYKE project will collect, analyse and share the most interesting examples to help Finnish industrial companies that are investigating the possibilities of digitalisation. The project starts with a hint collection phase, during which we’ll collect as many possible examples as we can find. From the hints we manage to find we’ll select a handful of companies for more detailed analysis and compile case studies of them.

To find good examples, we’re asking for your hints and tips on:

companies, that have gone through a strategic business renewal – in which digitalisation plays a central role – or that are well on their way through the change, or

information sources – like researchers, news articles or websites – which could help us find interesting examples.

The project is part of the Team Finland Future Watch activity (http://www.tekes.fi/futurewatch), which provides international foresight information to SME companies, and will be implemented by the digitalisation consultancy Intosome Oy in 2015.

What kind of examples is the project looking for?

As the examples are collected for industrial companies, do the case companies need to be industrial companies as well? – No, but the examples need to be relevant for industrial companies and offer ideas that are in some way applicable to them.

Are you collecting examples from a specific geographical area or from all over the world? – The examples can be from anywhere, but we assume we might find good examples from other Nordic countries, Central Europe, the USA or Asia.

Do the examples need to be from abroad or can they be from Finland as well? – As some Finnish companies do business internationally, we’re happy to consider them as well. But we’re concentrating our efforts on finding examples from other countries as local examples are probably pretty well known already.

How will you choose the companies that you’re going to analyze and make case stories of? – The project has a steering group – consisting of both public and company representatives – which will choose the case companies based on the hints we manage to collect.

What would a perfect example be like? – We hope to bring new ideas to Finnish companies that are currently doing strategic thinking about their future. A perfect example makes the company management revisit their thinking about the future or business possibilities in some way and is such that it can’t be right away dismissed as something that couldn’t work in an industrial setting as well.

What sort of information do you need about the example companies at this phase? – As we are first collecting hints, we just need a short description of the strategic renewal the company has gone or is going through, and your thoughts on why you think the example is especially relevant for Finnish industrial companies.